the scent of pine needles under bare feet in a wedding gown... the sweetest thing. to be yourself on your wedding day, an honest, yet sometimes forgotten thing. to be yourself. not what the bridal magazines tell you, not what your aunt-in-law tells you, but what you feel to be true. weddings. notions on weddings. on what it means to marry, to plan, to host, to be a bride, to be a groom. "it's her day" dispel the myths, the preconceived ideas, and be true to yourself, to each other, to us.

in a heavily marketed society, we crave honesty, truth, real truths, earthy honest truths. the wedding celebration is a sacred and very old tradition. it's not just an excuse to have a huge party with no speeches. no, to long boring speeches... yes, to heartfelt, honest, well-written speeches that open up our hearts and allow us to know each other anew. to learn more. to dig deeper and to fall in love again, all over.

let us celebrate, let us live like tom thomson, "humbly but passionately with the wild"

jon & adina wed in the pines, the birch trees, under a flood of sunshine with their parents under the chuppah this summer at the mcmichael canadian art collection. an art gallery featuring the work of canadian artists, most notably tom thomson and the group of seven. we wandered through the grounds, discovering at every turn incredible scultpures, and my favourite, thomson's original cabin. the mcmichael is truly a magnificent backdrop to celebrate humbly but passionately with the wild.

* did you know? the mcmichael collection grew out of the dream of two people: Robert (1921-2003) and Signe (1921-2007) who were married in 1949 and worked together at Robert McMichaels Studios... a wedding photography business in toronto? in 1954 they built a four-room log house using salvaged pioneer hand-hewn logs and fieldstone on their ten acres of wooded land in kleinburg. the following year, they purchased Montreal River, a small oil sketch by Lawren Harris. by the early 1960's their personal collection had grown to the point where thousands of people a year were asking to see the art collection. by 1965 the couple had donated 194 works of art, the buildings and the land to the province of ontario. the collection continued to grow with their support for many years. the gallery is a national treasure honouring canada's cultural heritage. if you have never been... now is the time.

(from the city archives. pictured above is the studio of Robert McMichaels. the glass storefront with three portraits hanging in the window)